Review: Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens

Masha, taken @ f1.2

Introduction

I must admit I wanted this lens since it came out. I wanted it badly after viewing some of the rare photos made with it on Flickr but the price and negative reviews always dissuaded me from buying it. This is such a shame as the Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM lens is a gem of a glass (and metal and some hard plastic too). My aim in this review is to post as many actual images taken with this lens so that you can also judge for yourself if this lens is indeed what you are looking for.

I use a full frame camera (Canon 5d) so those of you using a cropped sensor may not find this review as useful.

Currently nothing faster exists in Canon’s current production line up but there is one lens that is just as fast – the Canon EF 85mm f1.2 L USM. Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L also boasts an aspherical element. Leica make a big fuss about the new ASPH line of lenses and charge handsomely for it. Here you have a lens that is a stellar performer at a fraction of Leica price. Coming in at $1400 or EUR 1350 this is an expensive lens for a Canon prime but you would be spending many times more in the world of lovely Leica.

Tito @ f1.2

I seem to prefer prime lenses over the zooms. I think they make me think more about the composition of the shot and I like the size and weight benefits too. I have started carrying just one lens with each trip I make to further simplify the technical aspects of the photographing to let me concentrate on the actual image. I also hate carrying a tripod everywhere with me which means that longer focal lengths are usually out of question and larger apertures are always a plus. Fast 50 primes are therefore lenses that spend most time on my camera and as such I gathered that if I splash out on anything I should do it right there on the most classical focal length.

The lens comes in a standard Canon box. It contains a standard L series leather lens pouch. Now, I am really annoyed with Canon over this detail as this is an expensive lens and it should be protected from kicks and scratches and not just from dust. Canon should rectify this as soon as possible. Canon also ‘generously’ provides the ES-78 lens hood which is huge and padded with soft material inside to stop light reflecting. The last thing to mention is the lens manual (does anyone read these) and the warranty card.

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 vs Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L

Awwwww, taken @ f1.2

Before purchasing the Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L I used its smaller cousin the Canon EF 50mm f1.4. The f1.4 is a fantastic lens. It is cheap, light and takes great photos as long as you keep to above f2.8 aperture. Problem being is that I most often did not and even though the performance below f2.8 was fine for my personal work I really needed a better performer for my commercial photography. Additionally, after 18 months of (careful) use the plastic f1.4 lens started to worry me that it might give up on me at a crucial moment so I sold it and financed the purchase of the f1.2 L version.

The L version is bigger and girthier then the f1.4 but the main difference is in build quality and size. The L version is exactly double the weight of the f1.4. The L is 580g and the f1.4 is 290g. The difference in build quality could not be bigger. Whereas f1.4 is ‘plasticky’ the f1.2 feels super solid even though its outer casing is made of hard plastic the inside is strictly glass and metal and that feels very reassuring. The L is weather sealed (providing you put a filter on it) meaning dust and water are kept at bay. The zoom ring on the f1.4 is loose, cluncky and not very precise (you can hear and feel the plastic cogs grinding inside as you turn it) while the L focus ring is precise and smooth.

In short, if you are torn between the two in terms of which one to buy just ask yourself a) have you got enough money for the L and b) do you shoot often in f2.8 or lower. If bother answers are yes then get the Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L without any worry over the extra cost.

Zablace: The Swing

Specs (the boring bit)

Angle of view (horzntl, vertl, diagnl): 40º, 27º, 46º

Lens construction (elements/groups): 8/6

No. of diaphragm blades: 8

Minimum aperture: 16

Closest focusing distance (m): 0.45

Maximum magnification (x): 0.15

AF actuator: Ring USM ¹

Filter diameter (mm): 72

Max. diameter x length (mm): 85.8 x 65.5

Weight (g): 580

Lens hood: ES-78

Soft case: LP1214

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic aberration is the purple/red colour appearing at the edge where two highly contrasting areas meet. It is a common problem attributable to many a lens and the digital sensors make this problem worst. Photoshop and other quality tools can easily correct this so it is not a showstopper, just something you should be aware of when shooting scenes of high contrast.

Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L clearly suffers from chromatic aberration at larger apertures in high contrast scenes. The effect wears off as we close the aperture down.

Below we find a scene shot at f1.2 and the same scene shot at f2.5. The CA clearly shows at the edges in the frame shot with f1.2 but this effect is almost entirely gone by f2.5. You should open the full size examples below as it is quiet hard to see the effect even in these cropped samples.

In this second example of even more contrasty scene we find significant amount of CA even when shot a f2.8 so this times it takes stopping down to f5.6 before the effect is gone.

Focus Shift

The questions are whether the lens experiences focus shift and whether that focus shift is significant enough to create problems in real world use. For a specialist lens one could add a third question which is – am I prepared to work around the focus shift given the other important properties that compensate for the trouble?

Dice-time, taken @ f1.2

Before I get onto the results of my testing let me just say that focus shift is not as big a deal as some make of it and that many legendary lenses exhibit some focus shift, especially at mid apertures. Point in case are some of Leica’s lenses (35mm Summilux for instance) where focus shift exists but it is not significant enough to cause out of focus images in real world use or the buyers of the lens feel that the trouble of focus shift workaround is compensated by the overall quality of the lens.

Having said all this my tests show that there the lens exhibits no focus shift or that the focus shift is negligible enough that I could not notice it in my testing.

How did I test for focus shift? I tested mid and short distance. Mid distance was 4 meters and short was just over half a metre from the subject. The subject was a lens test card which was tilted at an angle. The apertures to watch out for are around f4 but by that time the lens became so sharp that should there have been any focus shift it was compensated by the wider DOF.

Given the UX lens date code it could be that Canon fixed the earlier versions’ focus shift problems. Certainly looking at forums online I could see that 2009/2010 comments report less issues with this lens then there was the case earlier.

If you are worried about investing all this money and the issue of focus shift stresses you out my advice is buy new production lens and don’t invest in a second hand version. I’d be interested to receive any comments from any of you who are having focus shift problems with this lens so please drop me a line and I will include a separate post on your experiences.

Resolution Performance

This is a complex subject in which real world use of the lens counts more then lab tests.

I have devised a simple test myself to measure where lies the lens sweet spot in terms of aperture and resolution recorded. Here are the results:

The trend of the graph is important here rather then value of the y axis. Unsurprisingly the least resolution recorded is at f1.2, the sweet spot lies at around f8 after which diffraction sets in but at a much smaller cost to data recorded then at smaller apertures.

Now my test measures detail recorded in respect to aperture used for the overall image. The test does not have to be done in a controlled environment but it can be used to compare one lens to another. Where the test fails is in comparing exactly how much detail is recorded comparatively as well as between centre and corners of the image.

Enter dreaded MTF.

MTF Charts for taken from Canon’s book EF Lens Work III, The Eyes of EOS, 8th Edition (2006)

The above MTF charts taken from Canon’s excellent EF Works book (more on it here). Wide open the lens produces good sharpness in the centre of the image but this quickly drops to below average for outer areas and corners. At f8 the lens is close to perfection in terms of sharpness corner to corner. The MTF chart also tells us that the quality of the bokeh will be very good with the combination of close dashed lines and lower image sharpness in the image corners wide open.

It seems the MTF chart is not a friend of this lens but this is slightly misleading. Corner sharpness is not something you really want at wide apertures where most of us prefer to keep things rather blurred and with a good bokeh. Portraits are a perfect example of where such performance is an absolute plus. Stepping down to f1.8 to f2 starts to give spectacular results in terms of increasing resolution and sharpness and the bokeh still remains creamy.

For those requiring corner to corner sharpness the f8 aperture is a standard anyway and in here the lens behaves brilliantly.

What I would like to offer here are a few examples of image sharpness so you can judge how sharp the lens is by yourselves.

Quarried Mountain, taken @ f8

Abandoned Village, taken @ f7.1

Visoka, taken @ f8

Snow, taken @ f8

Deserted Log Cabin, Taken @ f4

Background Blur and Bokeh

Being a 50mm with a maximum aperture of f1.2 this lens has plenty of background blur but more importantly the bokeh or the quality of that background blur is excellent. One of the reasons you want to be buying this lens is for its bokeh. It is creamy, buttery, smooth and out of focus highlights at f1.2 are elliptical while at smaller apertures they turn into lovely eight point stars.

There is no point talking too much about bokeh. Let me show you what I mean. First set of images is taken of a plastic child’s toy with lights in the background. At f1.2 the centre of the image is relatively sharp (focus is on the green fish’s eyes) but everything else simply melts away into a lovely background blur and the lights are elliptical. The files are straight out of the camera and you can view the larger version of each image by clicking on it.

f1.2

f1.4

f2

f2.8

f4

f8

f16

The second set of images is showing the actual shape of points of light from f1.2 to f4. The lights turn from elliptical to octagonal to round again as the lens is stopped down.

f1.2

f1.4

f1.6

f2

f2.8

f4

Instead of these forced images here are few real world examples of the bokeh this lens produces:

Zablace: Locker No27

Zablace: Glass Bokeh B&W

Winter at the beach

Unwanted

Rose Buds

Focusing

Unlike the Canon EF 85mm f1.2 L, this 50 does not focus by wire and it focuses much faster then its bigger cousin. Not focusing by wire means that the manual focus is more responsive, more subtle allowing for finer and more immediate focus increments. The speed of focusing is on par with the Canon EF 50mm f1.4 which in my view is focusing fast. The only time when one might see some slow focus performance is when focusing form infinity to near and vice versa and sometimes in very low light.

Actually when talking about the very low light focusing this lens is amazing at managing to focus when your eyes would have given up long time ago. I have made a small test to see how the lens focuses with just one candle (lumin) in the scene. It did not disappoint. The lens immediately caught onto objects near the candle and it relatively quickly focused on more darker, less well lit spots.

Testing f1.2 by candlelight

In fact, it is scary how much light this lens lets in when you consider that the image above was shot in ISO 400 and with just 15th of a second exposure (I can have very calm hands when I need to).

Hand held city view at night, taken @ f1.2

Ghosting and Flare

It is really hard to get this lens to flare or produce ghosting though not impossible. The lens has Canon’s anti flare and ghosting spectra coating which really helps to make this lens an excellent performer in this field. You can just about get away with shooting directly in the sun and still get very contrasty results.

The first image in this sequence is when things go wrong (sun coming in at an sharp angle) but the next few shots do show how the lens performs excellently when shooting towards the setting sun.

Abandoned Village, taken @ f1.2

Abandoned Village, taken @ f1.2

Vignetting

I will post soon examples of vignetting but for now you will have to take my word for it.

Vignetting is strong when wide open (estimate roughly -EV2.5) but it gets better by f2.8 and it is gone by f4. It is unreasonable to expect no vignetting at f1.2 but the vignetting is really noticable even though many people will actually want and like that effect.

The Glow

When taking portraits at f1.2 you really do notice that the lens exhibits a certain kind of warm fuzzy glow which combined with the vignetting, lower lens resolution and a buttery cream bokeh really makes portraits taken with this lens stand out from the crowd. I guess this is why most people consider this lens to be the best at portraiture and wedding photography.

Masha, taken @ f1.2

Petra, Taken @ f1.2

Conclusion

Canon marketing tells us that this lens is perfect for portraiture and wedding photography. I think they are selling it short. I am finding that landscapes are also its forte and so is street shooting. In fact, documentary photography work so well with it too especially because of its large aperture and the ability to work in low light. What I am trying to say in a very convoluted kind of way is that this lens is an all round performer.

The image quality is excellent. Colour, saturation and contrast are all so well controlled that post processing is brought down to a minimum. This has really liberated my time to do what I like doing best – taking photographs.

This lens has suffered some really harsh reviews in the past both by expert reviews as well as by the public on the forums. Reading the reviews it seems like from mid 2009 they all started to turn around and the reports of focus shifting and blurry images have slowly died down. Has Canon really responded to bad press and changed its production to a new set of higher quality? We’ll never know but I do wish all those, just like me, who really like the idea of this lens but never bought it because of the bad press do give it a go as it is worth the risk. The lens is excellent.

I would recommend Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM lens to anyone that likes great image quality, large aperture and a 50mm prime. Outside Leica’s shores there is simply nothing like it.

Post Scriptum

When I got the lens I started logging a three day diary of my experiences of it. Here is what I found…

Day 1

At the end of day one all I can think about is how bloody good this piece of glass is. I feel like the 50 is one of the most misunderstood and misreviewed (if there is such a word) lenses in teh Canon line up. As the images load (slowly) onto my big large iMac I am starting to see for the first time the contrast, colours, detail and the 3d punch of this lens. It is unlike any other Canon I tried, really different to 50.14 and absolutely on another planet when compared to Nikon.

As I woke up today knowing that my local dealer received the package I got up with a sense of dread – am I really going to spend all that $$ on a lens that so many people have problems with, on subtle improvement from what I already have in my 50.14 and all that at the deepest end of recession – am I mad?

I hoped for problems with softness and back focus, scratches on glass, lady at the shop not remembering the discount we agreed, hoped for all things to go wrong to save me from the financial drrain of this lens but nothing came to my rescue. Everything worked and seemed fine and I had to bite the bulet an take th eplunge.

Here we are in the car and I am putting the lens on my 5d, click and it is on, it is mine (so is the debt) and I am hers. First snap of the changing gear is made and off to grans I go for a nice home made lunch.

I was hearing that it is only good for close and mid distance subjects, that infinity was not its forte, that sharpness is definitely not the prime reason for getting this lens. What a load of tosh! Even at f1.2 the quick shot from the balcony dissuaded me from that – all looks good, details are there, corners soft but not awfully so (we are talking f1.2!!!!!)

I was hearing it is slow to focus. Tosh again! Not true, by any means. The sports events shooters beware (maybe) but then again would they really want this 50 or would then not be more interested in an exotic tele anyhow. The focus speed seems great.

Day 2

Getting over the initial excitement. I realise that I was a little manic last night after whole day of worry about the cost of the lens and quality benefits to be followed by loading onto the mac display which blew me away and made me fgo nuts.

Today, rarity happened here – Mediterranean snow. Well, for all of you used to snow you’d probably laugh at roughly 3mm of snow cover that fell this morning but the -2C is something we’re not used to here + the cold wind is blowing making outside snapping a strictly no go. Actually, the main reason why I am not venturing outside is that I still do not have the 72mm UV filter with which you must seal this lens to protect it from moisture and dust. Remember, this lens is not sealed against either of those until the filter is places.

So off to photograph animals, my cat Tito and dog Bonnie. Cat is black, dog is white – neither are an easy task for camera’s metering system, cat being the more difficult one.

What I really want to be doing is photographing foliage details and trying to tease out under which circumstances 50.12 will produce a bokeh swirl. I can’t afford Leica and its Noctilux swirl monster but a part of me hopes that Canon is capable of coming quite close to the legendary Leica look. If they pull this off then what I consider to be an expensive prime will be a cheap and serious competitor to Leica’s line up with only negative side being bulk. Leica is much smaller if not any lighter. In the portraits I’ve done yesterday evening and close up shots of drinks in very low diffused light started showing first sign of painter’s lens (expand).

What I am noticing today is the almost total lack of post processing work required. Contrast is fine, tonality is fine, saturation JUST right. Now this matter not only for those of you who shoot a lot but also for weekends shooters as post processing can lead to sometimes overdone look to your shots which at first look cool but soon start looking a tad tacky. I do not mind post processing, quite enjoy it really but not having to do it is liberating too. I can shoot RAW + JPEG and in most cases use JPEGS ‘out of the box’ so the speak. This is a significant plus.

Day Three

Cool head, cold hands, lens still performing beautifully.

The rain and snow stopped leaving everything covered in roughly half an inch of ice. It is like the whole village turned into a glass display and every step you make causes everything to crackle. Even without the UV filter I can finally go out.

I am still using the lens almost strictly below f2.8 with 1.2 being the norm. It likes it that way so it seems and I like the results. Still, I make a shot at f9 of the village just to tease out some detail and I am very (pleasantly) surprised as to how sharp the output is – out of the box. I used to think my 100mm f2 is sharpness monster but this is better, way better and it requires less post processing. It’s not all about sharpness either, the rendering is lovely and the colours are super.

The size and weight of the lens still feel natural to me on the 5d body. The lens looks just right, not too big like 85mm f1.2. The lens hood makes it huge though.

25 responses to Review: Canon EF 50mm f1.2 L USM Lens

Hi Igor,
Great review,well composed pictures.
I’m currently shooting with a 5DM2 & the Nifty Fifty but was looking to upgrade to the 1.4 coz’ the 1.2 was getting bad reviews on Amazon among other places. With your review,I’m having a re-look at the 1.2 & definitely will be considering it.

i second your findings. But it is no surprise – i also like primes way more than zooms for the very same reasons. I own the 1.2 and the older 1.0 fiftys and use them for portraits a lot. Love them both!

Igor, nice review. I have similar finding.
About the focus shift. It’s there by design, so all 50L has it regardless of the datecode. It’s just some 50L shift less so it’s within the dof.
My 50L has a UV datecode and it has focusing inconsistency. It performs much much better after I sent it to Canon service. I also haven’t notice much shifting now. Maybe Canon figured out how to minimize it now.

Igor, very good and fair review. I have uw code and found no issue or something it might have but i have never noticed in real life. Imo, 50L1.2 is one fine artistic lens. It has its distinct signature that other lenses can’t duplicate. Excellent colour within soft contrast and creamy bokeh creating an absolutely melting effects of everything it touches.

Hi, thanks for the review! Just as you, I was also discouraged from purchasing this lens by many not so positive reviews. If your ‘assumption’ is correct and Canon improved something in their production from mid 2009 onwards, it would be good to know whether it is possible to check the production date of the lens. Do you know if the serial number tells something about the production date?

Igor,
Wow, what a great review. Exactly what I needed. Thanks for all the great images. I notice strong vignetting in all the wide open shots and I know that is the characteristic of the lens. Just wondering if you added any vignetting in post? If not, that is definitely something for me to consider. Of course, it can be corrected if needed but that takes time.

All in all, a beautiful lens. Seeing is believing. I have the 85LII and was vascillating between the 35mm 1.4 and the 50mm 1.2. I think it will be the 50mm. Peace

Hellow igor I really loved your review… i would like to ask u 3 things… first can u post a picture of ur camera with this lense attached… second can u tell us briefly how this compare with the 85l II and third im thinking on getting this for my 7d which will be like having a 80mm do u think is a good idea? thanks for the EXCELLENT review and hope for your answers

PD: loved the images and would like to see more landscapes taken with this lense

Hello,
My f1.2 is in the post and reading your review I am very glad I made the leap of faith – I have never had a 50mm but am shooting with a 1d mk1 and a sigma 2.8 24-70mm and love the wide aperture settings but abhors the lack of focus. I was told I was mad to not buy the 1.4 but looking at the images and the glow and 3d effect achieved – I cannot wait to start taking wedding photos and more with this lens.
I take a lot of sports indoors and look forward to shooting taekwon do and boxing with this lens.

what a great review good job,sir. after reading ur review it really wanted me to go to the shop and buy it. :)but look right is really high compare to few month back. ;( (hope i can save enough money to afford one when the price is coming down)

Great review! I bought the 50L 1.2 last friday for the same reasons as everyone: bokeh wide open, color rendering, 3D, build quality, fast focus,… In other words: the things I was missing with my 50mm 1.4.

After as weekend of serious testing, I love this lens. It’s quite sharp at 1.2 and gives that special look to my pics. The only thing that bothers me is the focus shift between between f2 and f2.8. I use the 50mm a lot for portraits of my kid (<2 meter). When I shoot it @2.8, focus is on the farthest eye. I've read many reviews before purchasing this lens and was convinced of the fact that this was an issue on earlier models. Mine has a UZ0309 code, which means it was produced somewhere around march 2011.

I kind of thorn here… I'm seriously thinking of returning it an the one hand, but on the other hand I don't want to part from it Are you saying that yours doesn't have the focus shift? Does that mean that this can be fixed? What is your experience with this?

Hi there. Glad you are enjoying your new lens. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing the dreaded focus shift issue. What to do.. there are a few possibilities.. First being that you learn to compensate for the focus shift manually but this is a drag and will give you inconsistent results. The second option is to get the lens replaced should your dealer/shop offer you that option and try your luck with another copy. The last option is to get your lens calibrated by Canon but this takes time.

Good morning! Hope you are having an awesome day! I actually have a surprise for you today – look at this: http://Earn7700PerMonth.com It really works!!! I won’t say too much since the FREE video pretty much covers everything but I have been using it since it was in beta, roughly 6 months with my websites. The software pretty much does all the heavy work for you and I’ve been generating between $1,100 to $2,000 weekly for almost 4 months…! Ok the only problem with it is that it’s not 100% reliable but on average that’s been my earnings from http://Earn7700PerMonth.com If you’re clever and not a bleeding heart (unlike me haha), you will not tell anyyyyyone about it ;). Just keep it to yourself and earn loot hard. See you on the next side.

Wow this stuff works..!! I made $325 once more yesterday just by putting a few links on a couple sections like this one!! You can get paid for the same work also and I’ll show you how to generate $200 to $900 per day! No hidden coss or no bs like that, just go to http://1350perweek.com Yes I’m A Real person. Ok I’ll tell you now that the software won’t make you rich overnight..But this one is most definitely a moneymaker for sure!! if you dont want to try this then cool..but at least take a look at the free vid. Seriously this has really been a blessing for me handsdown. Ps. sorry about the language but hell thats the one way you can tell im a real person and not fake.